Click the video above to watch the video of Bishop Mauney Announcing the 2015 Synod Assembly. For your convenience the transcript has been provided below
“Hello, my name is Jim Mauney and I am the Bishop of the Virginia Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Our Synod has 149 different congregations across the commonwealth and we are all different parts of the body of Christ.
But we accomplish so much more together. As a Synod we come to the need of one another or to the joy of another. We join together for Youth events like Kairos and Winter Celebration. We learn together through our ACTS program, Roots and Wings, and Power in the Spirit. We work together to call the best pastors for our congregations.
Each summer our Synod holds the annual Virginia Synod Assembly at Roanoke College. This is a three day event for voting members of the congregations to come together for worship and to see that their congregation is a part of a wider church around the state, nation, and world. Each Synod Assembly we discuss important issues, we elect new leaders to carry out the business of the Synod and we adopt a budget for the coming year.
This year our theme will be Ambassadors for Christ: Knowing Our Congregational Neighborhood To Do God’s Will.
For its 50th Anniversary, Christ the King Lutheran Church in Richmond is knocking on the doors around its congregation just as its mission developer did 50 years ago. The developer made his presence known in that neighborhood, invited the lonely, started ministries to help the most vulnerable, and welcomed new families into the community. The person who started Christ the King was invested in its neighborhood. Here is our future as congregations.
At the Assembly we will be looking at the demographics of our neighborhoods. Our speaker who will be guiding us through the event is The Rev. Dr. Mary Sue Dreier who is the associate professor of pastoral care and missional leadership at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. She is a gifted speaker and a sparkplug of energy who will offer ideas for being more and more engaged with the neighborhood where our congregation is planted.
This is a great assembly for council members or congregational presidents to come.
Soon your pastor will be receiving a packet of information about the 2015 Synod Assembly which will be held June 5-7 this summer. Each congregation in our Synod will be represented by at least 2 people who will discover the work of the wider church, meet many of the leaders from across this synod, and vote to help the synod continue to do its ministry.
If you will not be joining us for Synod Assembly in June, you will be able to view some of the presentations from the weekend online. Thank you for your partnership as we continue to be formed into Ambassadors for Christ.”
For more information about Synod Assembly 2015 download our Guidebook App .
